外电中有如此的报道：
Retailing1 giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with net sales last year of $256.33 billion, was named No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies for the third year in a row.
in a row是一个固定短语，意思是one after the other without a break（一个接一个地，没间断）。比如：She won the competition three times in a row.（她接连三次取得了比赛冠军。）